On the Twelfth Day of Christmas
by Notoyax17
Summary: The first Christmas after a war is always a bit rough. Howard tries (a little too hard) to make it easier on Peggy.


The first thing she noticed upon arriving home was that there was a tiny hairpin on her welcome mat. Considering that it is the very same hairpin that she leaves pressed inside the crevice on the doorframe to mark an entry, Peggy was admittedly a touch cautious when she drew her gun and silently opened the door.

She's not quite sure if what she found is better or worse than the handful of trained assassins she had expected.

There were well over two dozen wrapped boxes of varying sizes and shapes in her living room. The fact that her living room really wasn't nearly large enough to accommodate this nonsense didn't help. Peggy closed her eyes and massaged her eyelids. "Howard," she sighed out.

It's the first Christmas they've had since Steve's... disappearance. While neither of them had actually known Steve long enough to experience a Christmas with him, Peggy doubted that she had been the only one eager to see the super soldier's face as he opened his presents. He'd struck her as easy to shop for and please. And easy to embarrass, but that was neither here nor there.

She'd experienced Christmas with Howard before, not as the... couple they were now, but together nonetheless. This was definitely an overreaction to that loss.

Howard, sitting in one of the only two open seats, covered his mouth with a fist and cleared his throat sheepishly. "Okay, I will admit I may have gone a bit overboard with this." At Peggy's raised eyebrow, the scientist ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. "More than a bit. But I didn't realize how bad it was until the movers arrived and the place got all cramped. I WAS going to just buy you a larger apartment to put it all in..."

Peggy's eyes widened and the grip on her gun tightened. Something that Howard clearly noticed if the way his hands shot up into a placating gesture was any indication. "But I realized that would definitely not help my case so I definitely didn't!" He finished in a rush.

Peggy allowed herself to flop down into the leftover recliner and huffed out a soft laugh. "Good to know you're smarter than you act," she said, closing her eyes.

"Thank- OW, hey, come on! Most of this stuff are throwaways but I DID get you a couple guaranteed favorites!"

Peggy opened one eye to glance at him with. Howard stood up and made his way over to sit on the arm of her chair. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a black box smaller than all of the other boxes that littered the room. She took it from him in wary confusion and opened it slowly only to gasp in surprise.

It was the most beautiful gun she'd ever seen. **  
**

It was compact but heavy, the weight no doubt a result of increasing the shooting power of the small thing. She opened it up and was highly pleased to see that Howard had even managed to increase the standard amount of rounds in the type of gun from six to eight. It was thin and shaped like a fashionable novelty lighter...no, there was actually a clip on the side that allowed it to BE a novelty lighter.

Peggy let out a sound that was supposed to be a pleased hum but came out as a moan that she quickly attempted to cover up with a cough.

Howard's eyebrows rose up close to his hairline, his own cheeks pinking a bit in surprise. "WELL. Note to self, then."

Peggy snorted in derision but stood up and gave him a lingering kiss on the cheek anyway, to Howard's delight.

Howard took a step back and bounced on his heel, nearly vibrating in his excitement. "Well, if you liked that, you're going to LOVE the bazooka I made you!"

Peggy frowned slightly. A bazooka sounded interesting, but... "What on Earth would I need a bazooka for?"

It wasn't an actual weapon for warfare, it turned out. At least not the kind that she was used to. And while "immature" and "sadistic" were two words Peggy never thought she would use to describe herself, she will admit to having experienced a thrill of perverse pleasure at the screams of terror and alarm from her Howling Commandos that evening when they came over for holiday drinking.

As she and Howard assaulted the men on her doorstep with a barrage of just utterly MASSIVE snowballs from her bedroom two stories up.

-xxx-

There was soft, sort of squeaking sound coming from one of the boxes in her living room. A small cage, it turned out.

Peggy's eyes narrowed slightly. "Howard. Seriously?"

"I may have gotten you a pet. They say people live longer when they have something to come home to. So, just in case my handsome mug isn't enough..." Howard waggled his eyebrows and waved vaguely at the box in the corner.

"I don't have time to take care of an animal."

"Which is why it's a cat! And, hold on, you're going to love this!" Howard went over to the crate and opened it up. A small, tiny really, yellow-furred kitten made its way out of the crate. When Howard reached down and picked it up, the thing had a conniption. It puffed up into a marginally less tiny ball of fluff and attempted to murder Howard who, very wisely, was holding it up from under it's arms, leaving it to claw at air. Its enraged meows were made significantly less frightening by how tinny its voice was. "It's Steve!" he said excitedly.

Peggy raised an eyebrow, though she could see why he would think that. "Uh huh," she said dryly.

Howard rolled his eyes and set the cat down, allowing him to putter around the small space cautiously, as if expecting something to pop out from one of the many boxes (not an unreasonable expectation, all things considered). When Steve the cat made his way over to her, Peggy hesitated before slowly kneeling down and offering her hand for him to sniff. She must have smelled decently enough, because him allowed her to pet him, to Howard's vague irritation. "Well, this isn't too bad."

"It's gets better," Howard said. He reached down towards the cage. He hadn't even touched it yet but the tiny kitten was in front of the cage like a bolt, hissing and spitting like an actual snake. "Jesus. We already went through this! I'm not going to hurt him!" Never mind that Howard could easily cover the small thing with one hand, flatten it down and have ample room to reach into the cage.

Howard actual seemed like he was about to do just that when another cat, dark brown and significantly larger than undersized kitten that may actually be too old to be called a kitten, exited the cage and flopped down right on top of Steve the cat. The litany of what could only be described as curses from the yellow puffball of rage was muffled by his friend's fur, at least until the larger cat lifted himself just enough to start grooming it. It took an unreasonable amount of time before the loud, angry meows softened into soft purrs that the his friend quickly added to.

"Oh... You weren't kidding," Peggy murmured.

Howard grinned widely down at the cats. "I know, right! Wouldn't it be amazing if we could find counterparts for ALL of the Commandos? Get them matching uniforms, train them for spy missions..." Peggy grabbed the man by his lapels and kissed him deeply.

She needed to nip that plan in the bud before it got off the ground.

It wasn't her taste in men that was questionable, just their taste in everything else.


End file.
